Petrol pump and tank lorry owners and workers on Wednesday at a representative conference urged the government to accept their 13-point demand by May 8. Otherwise, they threatened a strike for an indefinite period from May 9 at their pumps and government oil depots across the country, reports UNB.
"We''ve been pursuing movement for last 14 years to realise our 13-point demand. We''ve sent 16 letters to the authorities concerned in the last 13 months. But there is no response from the government side to resolve our problems," said Mohammad Nazmul Haque, convenor of Petrol Pump and Tank lorry Owners-Workers Unity Council, at the conference attended by about 500 pump owners and tank lorry workers.
The main issues of the 13-point demand include raising commission on the sale of petroleum from the existing 2 percent to 7 percent, implementing a government decision for setting up testing laboratories at the petrol depots, issuing arms licenses to the petrol pump owners and raising the fare of tank-lorries.
There about 3000 petrol pumps across the country and of those more than 300 are in capital Dhaka.
The Unity Council, comprising Bangladesh Petrol Pump Owners Association (BPPOA) and Bangladesh Tank Lorry Workers Federation (BTLWF), was recently formed and it has launched a movement to press home its demands.
Addressing the conference, the leaders of the Owners-Workers Unity Council promised to stop all kinds of operations at petrol pumps and oil depots during the planned strike.
The organisation already enforced a half day strike on March 14 at the petrol pumps and depots across the country in relation to the same demands.
It is now giving the government about two months to accept their demands.
Recently, the Owners-Workers Unity Council announced the May 9 strike programme and started a countrywide campaign in favour of their demands.
Nazmul Haque told the representative conference that they would not back down and go home until their demands are met by the government.
"We''ve been continuously incurring losses in our business. We can''t survive unless the government raises the rate of our commission," he said.
He alleged that tank-lorries are frequently being disturbed by highway police despite having all valid documents.
Reiterating the demand for issuing arm licences to pump owners, Haque alleged incidents of dacoity and looting have increased sharply at the petrol pumps in recent days.
Secretary General of Petrol Pump Owners Association (PPOA), Mizanur Rahman Ratan, General Secretary of Bangladesh Tank Lorry Workers Federation (BTLWF) Shahjahan Siraj and other leaders of the two organisations were present at the press conference.
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